observed Alexei Alexandrovich.
`Oh, no, oh, no, not at all! Please understand me,' said Stepan Arkadyevich again touching him - this time his hand - as though feeling sure this physical contact would soften his brother-in-law. `All I say is this: her position is intolerable, and it might be alleviated by you, and you will lose nothing by it. I will arrange it all for you, so that you'll never notice it. You did promise it, you know.'
`The promise was given before. And I had supposed that the question of my son had settled the matter. Besides, I hoped that Anna Arkadyevna had enough magnanimity...' Alexei Alexandrovich articulated with difficulty, his lips twitching and his face white.
`She leaves it all to your magnanimity. She begs, she implores one thing of you - to extricate her from the impossible position in which she is placed. She does not ask for her son now. Alexei Alexandrovich, you are a good man. Put yourself in her position for a minute. The question of divorce for her in her position is a question of life and death. If you had not promised it once, she would have reconciled herself to her position, she would have gone on living in the country. But you promised it, and she wrote to you, and moved to Moscow. And here she's been for six months in Moscow, where every chance meeting cuts her to the heart, every day expecting an answer. Why, it's like keeping a condemned criminal for six months with the rope round his neck, promising him perhaps death, perhaps mercy. Have pity on her, and I will undertake to arrange everything....
Vos scrupules...'
`I am not talking about that, about that...' Alexei Alexandrovich interrupted with disgust. `But, perhaps, I promised what I had no right to promise.'
`So you go back on your promise?'
`I have never refused to do all that is possible, but I want time to consider how much of what I promised is possible.'
`No, Alexei Alexandrovich!' cried Oblonsky, jumping up. `I won't believe that! She's unhappy as only a woman can be unhappy, and you cannot refuse in such...'
`As much of what I promised as is possible. Vous professez d'être libre penseur . But I, as a believer, cannot, in a matter of such gravity, act in opposition to the Christian law.'
`But in Christian societies and among us, as far as I'm aware, divorce is allowed,' said Stepan Arkadyevich. `Divorce is sanctioned even by our church. And we see...'
`It is allowed, but not in the sense...'
`Alexei Alexandrovich, you are not like yourself,' said Oblonsky, after a brief pause. `Wasn't it you (and didn't we all appreciate it in you?) who forgave everything, and, moved simply by Christian feeling, were ready to make any sacrifice? You said yourself: if a man take thy cloak, give him thy coat also, and now...'
`I beg,' said Alexei Alexandrovich shrilly, getting suddenly onto his feet, his face white and his jaws twitching, `I beg you to drop this...
to drop... this subject!'
`Oh, no! Oh, forgive me, forgive me if I have wounded you,' said Stepan Arkadyevich, holding out his hand with a smile of embarrassment;`but like a messenger I have simply performed the commission given me.'
Alexei Alexandrovich gave him his hand, pondered a little, and said:
`I must think it over and seek for guidance. The day after tomorrow I will give you a final answer,' he said, after considering a moment.
[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]
TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 7, Chapter 19[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 19 Stepan Arkadyevich was about to go away when Kornei came in to announce:
`Sergei Alexeevich!'
`Who's Sergei Alexeevich?' Stepan Arkadyevich was about to ask, but he remembered immediately.
`Ah, Seriozha!' he said aloud. - `'sergei Alexeevich!' I thought it was the director of some department. - Anna asked me to see him too,'
he remembered.
And he recalled the timid, piteous expression with which Anna had said to him at parting: `Anyway, you will see him. Find out exactly where he is, who is looking after him. And Stiva... If it were possible!
Could it be possible?' Stepan Arkadyevich knew what was meant by that `if it were possible,' - if it were possible to arrange the divorce so as to let her have her son.... Stepan Arkadyevich saw now that it was useless to dream of that, but still he was glad to see his nephew.
Alexei Alexandrovich reminded his brother-in-law that they never spoke to the boy of his mother, and he begged him not to mention a single word about her.
`He was very ill after that interview with his mother, which we had not foreseen,' said Alexei Alexandrovich. `Indeed, we feared for his life. But with rational treatment, and sea bathing in the summer, he regained his strength, and now, by the doctor's advice, I have let him go to school.
And certainly the companionship at school has had a good effect on him, and he is perfectly well, and making good progress.'
`What a fine fellow he's grown! And he's no longer Seriozha, but quite full-fledged - Sergei Alexeevich!' said Stepan Arkadyevich, smiling, as he looked at the handsome, broad-shouldered lad in blue jacket and long trousers, who walked in alertly and confidently. The boy looked healthy and good-humored. He bowed to his uncle as to a stranger, but, recognizing him, he blushed and turned hurriedly away from him, as though offended and irritated at something. The boy went up to his father and handed him a note of the marks he had gained in school.
`Well, that's very fair,' said his father, `you may go.'
`He's thinner and taller, and has grown from a child into a boy;I like that,' said Stepan Arkadyevich. `Do you remember me?'
The boy looked back quickly at his uncle.
`Yes, mon oncle ,' he answered, glancing at his father, and again he looked downcast.
His uncle called him to him, and took his hand.
`Well, and how are you getting on?' he said, wanting to talk to him, and not knowing what to say.
